Tis Unexpected
by BitterSweetImagination
Summary: Short Morrigan/M!Cousland story.


Alistair scowled to himself as he watched the pair of them exchange small smiles and flirtasios looks. It wasn't that he was jealous of their relationship or that he wanted Morrigan for himself, Maker that _certainly _wasn't the case, it was the fact he felt that Morrigan was using his friend and he didn't like it.

Aedan Cousland had become the brother he always wanted. His best friend and he didn't want to see him hurt. Not after everything he had already been through. Like Alistair, he hid his pain behind humour and it wasn't until after fighting the undead at Redcliffe he had finally opened up to Alistair and the group about what happened at Highever and about the massacre of his whole family.

Letting his grief out, Aedan had drunk a lot that night and while Alistair was keeping watch with Sten he had noticed the surviving Cousland and Morrigan in a passionate clinch. Shocked, he could only watch as they kissed each other hard before Morrigan pulled on his hand and into her tent – Alistair knew what was going to happen and tried to get as far away from the Witch's tent as possible.

Everyone else had been surprised, except for Lelianna who seemed heart-broken. It had been obvious she harboured feelings for their leader and to lose him to Morrigan must have been hard. Zevran had snickered and asked Aedan how he had slept while Wynne pursed her lips and refused to speak while he himself could only shake his head.

As Oghren had joined them, Aedan had given up his tent and was now sharing with Morrigan – much to Alistair's disgust.

"Something on your mind, Alistair?" Aedan asked him, raising an eyebrow.

Shaking his head, Alistair forced a smile "Nothing worth mentioning," out of the corner of his eye, he seen Morrigan walk past them and smirk at Aedan who grinned back. Alistair could only roll his eyes as the Witch of the Wilds ran her fingers through Aedan's thick brown hair as she passed, "unlike yourself."

"To be honest, I do have a _few_ things on my mind," Aedan chuckled as he tilted his head to watch Morrigan walk away, "and surprisingly they're nothing to do about darkspawn."

"I bet, you two have been making kissy faces at each other all night," Alistair tried to keep his voice light and joking but Aedan caught the bitter undertone and frowned slightly.

"Problem?"

Alistair shook his head and his fellow Warden sighed.

"I'm no fool Alistair," he said quietly "it's not hard to see nearly everyone isn't happy with my choice in companion but she makes me happy."

"I just don't want you getting hurt," Alistair muttered, averting his eyes and instead looking into the crackling fire "none of us do. You can't deny that Flemeth has a hidden agenda with sending Morrigan with us, I just fear this is part of her plan. I don't _want_ it to be," he admitted honestly meeting the other man's eyes "with everything you've been through you _deserve_ happiness. Just…just be careful, all I'm saying…"

Aedan thought for a moment before nodding, "I will be Alistair…the Blight is my main concern, don't worry," he smiled a little "I'm not gonna let the darkspawn win."

"That's good to hear," Alistair said, knowing that Aedan had taken into account what he had said, "I was just worried for you."

Putting a hand over his heart, Aedan grinned widely "Alistair…I didn't know you cared," he said sighing lovingly "my heart is all a flutter."

"Shut up…" Alistair chuckled to himself "if anything happens to you, I'll be the last Grey Warden and we all know that won't be a good thing."

Still grinning, Aedan clapped him on the back with his hand, "You'd be fine," he said honestly "Wynne would keep you right."

"She keeps everyone right."

"Too true."

They sat quietly for a moment before Aedan stood up, "We better turn in, it's gonna be hard finding the Dalish and we'd better get a good night's rest," Alistair seen him glance over at Morrigan who was standing outside her tent, tending to her personal fire.

"Just…remember what I said," Alistair said quietly as Aedan looked at him, "we can't lose you…we just can't."

"My father's dying words to me were 'A Cousland always does their duty'," Aedan said grimly "I'm not going to ever forget that, don't worry."

Alistair watched him walk away and slip his hand around Morrigan's waist and pull her close, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, just hoping Aedan wasn't too much under Morrigan's spell, he didn't want to lose the first best friend he had made.


End file.
